It Started With an Ouzo

by Stavros Allanopolis

  “This situation is not good. Not good for Giannis, not good for you, and not good for me.”

  “As the Real Estate Agent I am responsible for the success of the sale and it is what I get paid to do. It is my reputation also that is in question if we allow the problem to stop the success of the sale. So, I have spoken with Giannis and here is what we will do. I will pay Giannis all the money he needs before 31st December in order for him to do what his Accountant recommends.”

  He continued, “Today, you will transfer the 20% as we had agreed, and you will complete the final payment before 31st January as we had also agreed. However, for me to do all this, you must also sign the contract before 31st December for Giannis to be able to register it in time with the tax office. As I have already said, you will have the translation within 48 hours to read and be assured that everything is correct and the Lawyer can sign for you as your Power of Attorney.”

  Stunned silence again; this had been quite a rollercoaster of emotions within just a few days, however, here we were right of the brink of a completion that would work for everybody.

  “That is fantastic news Vassilis. Thank you so much, and yes, provided we do get the translation, we will approve the signing of the contract in time for Giannis.”

  “Good!” said Vassilis.

  “Now you must sign the paper I had the Lawyer draw up for you and me to agree this proposal. It is in Greek but it says what our agreement is. When you sign, it commits you to the payment of the 20% today, the balance before 31st January and having the contracts signed before 31st December. There will be two contracts; one for the house and a separate one for the plot of land. The plot of land has to be a separate contract. I recommend that you apply for a building permit whilst all the paperwork is being done as it makes it easier for you to do it now, just in case you need it in the future.

  I am putting up my money and as I trust you to sign, so you must trust me that this is what it says in Greek on this paper.”

  Imagine most Estate Agents doing that? Especially not in the UK! I signed the paper and we had a copy made, we shook hands, we smiled and we ‘hugged’ and we both knew that this would work, and that Valerie and I were truly taking the final step and heading for our new life Agios Nikolaos.

  We returned to the UK and true to her word, two days later the fax machine delivered the translation of the contract in English. We read it, and our UK Solicitor checked it out, and everything was in order. We duly confirmed that our Lawyer could sign the contract on our behalf and during those 48 hours, we were able to confirm that we would have the money earlier than 31st January.

  We arranged to return to see Vassilis and Giannis on 22nd January to transfer the money and celebrate the successful conclusion of the purchase, and as planned on 22nd January, back we came to Agios Nikolaos, complete with another four trunks of Excess Baggage.

  This time it was all smiles for everybody for the entire 48 hours that we were there.

  “We’ve done it. Just think, within another 11 weeks we will be here for good,” this was me talking to Valerie at, where?

  Yes you guessed it, where else but the ‘Scene of the Crime!’

  “Parecello (Please, what do you want)?” enquired Nikos

  We ordered our drinks.

  “Theo Ouzo (Two Ouzos), Eferesto (Thank you).

  We sat at ‘our’ table as we waited for our drinks to arrive, and we got our copies of the ‘Exit the UK’ plan and our Excel spread sheet with all the financial details in order to look at what we needed to do next.

  Previously, I had given notice at my job and would be ‘free’ on 28th February. I had accrued some holiday time and so it was decided for me to complete a series of ‘Excess Baggage’ flights to complete the removal. Valerie would be ‘free’ one month later.

  So, we set the departure date from our apartment as the 8th of April and the permanent arrival day in Greece as the 9th of April. We would stay overnight in a hotel at the Corinth Canal, and finally the moving in date as 10th of April; right on schedule.

  It was in fact two weeks earlier than the ‘Exit the UK’ plan detailed. At last, we were ready to start living our new life in ‘Paradise’ in Agios Nikolaos, The Mani, and Greece!

  Our drinks arrived, “Yammus!” (Cheers!) We were well and truly on our way, but before we left, I took one last look across the harbour slipway and as I looked, I could see the window of the Tsoumeas Real Estate Agency.

  There in the front was the A4 specification sheet of our house marked SOLD!

  The last line of the description said, ‘An extremely good buy!’ and we had proved to ourselves that it was!

  Tsoumeas Construction and Real Estate had lived up to their motto;

  ‘Your Dream, Our Team’

  They had delivered our ‘Dream.’

  Photo: The ‘Sold’ Poster.

  THE REMOVALS START

  When we had returned home on 24th January 24, we consulted our ‘What to buy?’ list and we then set about deciding ‘What to Sell?’ and ‘What to Take?’ Thank goodness for Excel spreadsheets!

  On one spreadsheet, we listed everything that we were going to sell or give away and on another we listed all the items on the ‘What to take?’ list from the original ‘Exit the UK’ plan, and allocated packing dates for these items and as we had numbered all the trunks and cases, we listed the items by luggage trunk number too! This was turning into a military operation!

  Commencing the first week of February I made a round trip every two weeks. Departing Friday evening from Luton, complete with four luggage trunks, pre-booked as Excess Baggage, plus a carry-on bag that was as full and as heavy as I could lift into the overhead locker on the plane, direct to Athens.

  I stayed overnight at a hotel on the motorway junction just on the Corinth Canal (one hour from the airport), made an early start and arrived at the house by 08.30am on the Saturday morning and returning on the Sunday evening flight to the UK.

  Each time I arrived, I unpacked and then set about scrubbing the house from top to bottom; every nook and cranny and every surface. Giannis had made a good job of cleaning the house for us, but Valerie insisted that I ‘Dettol-ised’ every surface so that when she arrived she could just put everything in its chosen place with no cleaning to do.

  So, Saturday was spent cleaning. Sunday morning was spent marvelling at my achievements and Sunday afternoon driving back to Athens Airport.

  It became a great routine and it all worked like clockwork.

  As I said earlier, the Manager at the Hertz desk recognised me and always gave me a free upgrade because I think that she thought I was crazy and would appreciate the larger car for the luggage trunks. Once I told her that we were going to ship our two cats as well, she was ‘hooked’ and genuinely seemed to look forward to every other Friday night to see me, complete with baggage trolley carrying the four luggage trunks. She really loved it when I gave her two copies their cat passport photos!

  Right from the very first ‘removal’ journey, EasyJet UK staff at Luton Airport in the UK were amazingly helpful. With their help, I always checked in at the Extra Large Baggage desk, and the advantage was that the trunks were ‘last on and first off’ and this helped me beat the rush at the baggage carousel in Athens Airport and Passport Control as I headed for the Hertz Rental desk.

  EasyJet Greek staff at Athens Airport was not so good at first. Always remembering that, when I was on my way back, the trunks would always be empty (ready for the next trip two weeks later), here’s how the first return trip went; it did not get off to a good start.

  As I arrived at the check-in desk, here are the first words I heard as I loaded the three large silver luggage trunks on to the conveyor belt scales.

  “We cannot take those trunks without you paying Excess Baggage charges.” Said a stern voice of authority! I looked up to see the lady handling agent; no smile of greeting on her face.

  I responded, “I will not be paying anything as I have paid to be on Speedy B
oarding and they are already pre-booked as hold luggage and paid for at the standard rate.”

  “You must pay as they will be over your 20 kilo limit of free baggage.”

  Still no smile of greeting, she continued,

  “You must pay, or you cannot travel. Put them on the scales and I will tell you how many Euros that you will have to pay.”

  “Look,” I said, “I am moving to Greece and these luggage trunks come out full of my possessions from the UK and I pay the appropriate Excess Baggage charges. However, they are empty on my return to the UK, and together weigh less than the 20 kilo limit that I am allowed in total on this ticket.”

  Smug smiles from her and the other Ground Staff at the check in-desk. She clearly thought that she was going to show me who was in charge. I could swear she was ‘willing’ them to be over the 20 kilo weight allowance.

  “Put them on the scales together and we will tell you. The charge is 10€ Euros for every kilo over your allowance.”

  The scales revealed all - 18.5 kilos in total! She was not so smug anymore and her colleagues looked away. I could swear that they were will them to be overweight.

  The following trips were a very different affair!

  “Hey! Good Evening Mr Allan. Good to see you again? Empty? How is the move going? Just put the trunks on the scales together will you please? Empty? That’s fine. 18.5 kilos in total; great! Thanks Mr Allan and have a good trip and we’ll see you again in two weeks. Thanks for flying EasyJet to Luton tonight. Have a good flight.”

  The final ‘removal’ journey was a tough one; I made two return trips in just four days! I travelled out to Athens on the Friday evening and returned from Athens on the Sunday evening; the time in between was spent in Agios Nikolaos carrying out the same unpack and clean routine.

  The Monday morning saw me packing the remaining items for removal and flying out in the same evening, only this time I headed for the Left Luggage in Athens Airport and deposited the three trunks and one large case to be kept for us arriving the following week.

  I slept at the Airport Hotel and caught the 6am flight back to the UK on what was now the Tuesday morning. I flew to Gatwick and then travelled the two hours by train to our apartment. I was exhausted but it was job done; mission accomplished and we now had everything but hand luggage and the cats safe and sound in Greece and under budget too!

  It turned out that it was the in-between time back in the UK that was a challenge! Looking back, we believe that we came up with a unique way of saying goodbye to our families, friends and work colleagues.

  We did a complete inventory of the house and compared it to the ‘Exit the UK’ plan that identified all of the ‘What to take?’ items to check that I had removed everything on the list. Then we compiled and Excel spreadsheet that listed all the remaining items in the house and put them into categories; these items had to go!

  So, we emailed all our family members, friends and work colleagues with an ‘Announcement / Invitation’ to say that we were leaving the UK and asking them to come to the apartment on a specific date to say goodbye. We attached the spreadsheet to the email and we labelled it as ‘Leaving the UK sale’ complete with prices. We had decided that rather than give everything to the local charity shop, we would try and sell it. So the invitation was for everybody to come around for a glass of wine and for them to look over the ‘merchandise’ which we priced at very low prices in order to be sure it sold. All the money raised going was going to a good cause; us!

  So, the spreadsheet became just like a pre-auction brochure complete with descriptions and prices. We decided that whatever did not sell we would then take to our local Age Concern Charity shop.

  We sent the invitations and we had allocated various nights and weekends throughout March. It seemed like the ‘Long Goodbye,’ but every single person that we invited duly arrived on the assigned date, drank our wine, ate our nibbles and bought something. Bargains were to be had for all! One couple bought so much furniture that they had to hire a van to take it away!

  We saved our final weekend in the UK for our families; Valerie’s on the Saturday and mine on the Sunday.

  Upon reflection, the cost of the wine and nibbles that everybody consumed was probably equal to the total of the sales revenue! However, it was another ‘mission accomplished’ as far as we were concerned, and we only ended up having to take two black bin liner bags to the charity shop. The plus side of the operation was that we got to see our families and all our friends and say goodbye to them.

  By the last Sunday evening of living in the UK, everything had gone, except for our bed and the clothes and toiletries that we had packed for the journey. We had to borrow a kettle to make morning tea for the Monday and Tuesday mornings and we ate out for both days’ lunch and evening meals as we had no china or crockery left!

  During this period of time, the sale of our apartment was duly completed and the widow lady even agreed to allow us to stay in the house until the morning that we were due to leave for the airport. Everything was going to plan so on the morning of Tuesday 8th April we set about the last tasks detailed on the ‘Exit the UK’ plan.

  The friends that bought our bed hired a van and collected it one hour after we awoke, and we set about cleaning the apartment.

  We left it absolutely ‘spotless’ in return for the widow lady’s generosity. We had a final ‘goodbye’ to our immediate neighbours and then we took the keys to the apartment to the widow lady son’s house. After that, we drove to the Freight Removal premises to take the cats for their crate ‘fitting’ for their flight to Athens.

  We arrived at the Freight Removal offices, where we were to deposit our two cats; Owen and Minstrel. They were travelling on the same flight as us but needed to travel in the hold in a specially constructed compartment. The process was that after we took them out of their plastic travel baskets, they would be loaded into their purpose built crates, taken to a local cattery, checked over by a vet, stay overnight and then be taken to the airport in the morning.

  Now, remember, these are our ‘children,’ who did not know what was happening. The company (Air Supply Freight, Staines, Middlesex, UK), were fantastic! We had supplied them with details of Owen and Minstrel’s sizes and weights and they had made special wooden crates for them to travel in and special labels too! We arrived at the Air Supply offices with Owen and Minstrel in their usual plastic travel baskets used for visits to the vet. When we went into the office there were three ladies waiting for their arrival. They closed the office door behind us, in order that neither could escape as they were transferred to the crates, and went to look at Owen and Minstrel. They were pleased to welcome them and to give them both a good stroking before loading them into their labelled travel crates. They assured us that everything would be fine and that we would see them again when they were unloaded in the cargo warehouse in Athens.

  However, as we left the office, all we could hear was, “Miaouww. As if to say, what is going on and where do you think you are going without us?”

  We then drove to the hotel and had just checked in when our friends arrived; right on time. They inspected the car, handed over the money and they were gone! In the morning, we would go by taxi to Terminal 5 at the airport. We were now about 24 hours away from our scheduled arrival in Athens. Tired? Nervous? Excited? Worried about the cats? Yes to all four, and maybe more!

  For our last evening in the UK, we would meet two other friends for our dinner at Heathrow Terminal 5. Kay and Paul had not been able to make any of the proffered dates to come to the apartment ‘farewell sale’ and suggested dinner together on our last night in the UK. So here we were in Terminal 5. It is British Airway’s new central ‘hub’ for all London operations and flights and at that time had only been operational for three weeks. It had opened to mixed reviews and a lot of criticism. There had been a succession of cancelled flights in the previous three weeks due to the various ‘teething problems’ encountered with British Airways’ move to Terminal 5. The
y had also mislaid and lost a lot of passengers’ baggage and were struggling to sort out a ‘mountain of baggage’ that had accumulated due to the cancelled flights. To date their operations from day one were not going strictly according to plan.

  Media attention was fierce and highly critical. Apparently it had taken five years in the planning for this move and it was not going to that plan! However, we had read that the restaurants situated in the pre-Departures area were good and all ‘branded’ by leading ‘celebrity chefs.’ We chose ‘Carlucci’s’ to eat and with good company, good food and good wine, it was a lovely last evening in the UK. Kay and Paul had collected us from the hotel earlier and now also taken us back to the hotel after dinner. We said our goodbyes, or rather promised ‘Au Revoir’ and went to our room to set the alarm clock and go to bed in readiness for our ‘big day’ and we hoped that our plan would work better than British Airways’ opening of Terminal 5 had!

  ‘EXIT THE UK PLAN’ – THE FINAL STAGE

  Came the morning of the 9th of April and we were soon back in Terminal 5 and heading for the check-in desk for Athens. Although we only had hand luggage, we remembered that we had read that the terminal was still the centre of intense media attention. It was now also the focus of the British Airways’ Senior Management attention as they worked to get it fully operational.

  British Airways had publicly promised no further delays or flight cancellations, and to reduce the incidences of mislaid and lost passenger baggage. In consequence of this announcement, Management ‘Suits’ (BA managers wear suits and not uniforms) were everywhere trying to improve the service levels, and we were to experience the worst and the best of British Airways service and hospitality!

  We had paid British Airways just £65 each for our one way tickets to Athens and £360 each for Owen and Minstrel! They were booked to travel on the same plane as us but in the luggage hold in special temperature controlled compartment; hence the extra cost. Our single biggest worry was would they actually be loaded in time and on the same plane?